Victoria Staff – Five Questions With

Indie-Folk Singer Victoria Staff Writes an Ode to Her Favourite Cafe on “Olive and Ruby”

Victoria Staff writes music for the same reasons that we all run and bake and hang out with friends and family – it makes us feel better. Writing music has always supported her through mental health issues, and it gave her a way to process complex emotions at a really young age. She writes music to help herself, and she shares it to help other people.

In her nostalgic song, “Olive and Ruby,” Victoria yearns to go back to a place that has closed down – her favourite coffee shop in Vancouver.

Victoria shares,

“This shop was a keystone in my Vancouver life, and it’s gone forever. I wrote the song so I could try to hold onto the way I remembered the cafe. I didn’t want it to be one of those memories that just turns lackluster with time and fades. I wanted to make sure I held onto all the little bits that made that place familiar.“

Listen to “Olive and Ruby” below and learn more about Victoria via our Five Questions With segment.

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hello! I’m Victoria, I’m from Toronto, and I am a songwriter. I grew up in Toronto and lived in Vancouver for a couple of years while I got my degree. Currently, I’m back in my hometown, and I play sad songs in bars and try to get people to laugh in between them. 

Tell us a bit about your most recent release.

My most recent release – “Olive and Ruby,” – is a bit of an ode to the businesses that closed during the pandemic. I wrote it about a coffee shop in Vancouver that was a home away from home for me. During the pandemic, it closed, and I was honestly devastated, if not mainly for the fact that they had the best banana bread in the world. But I had so many great memories of living in that city and spending time in that shop. I wanted to preserve all of them in a song. 

Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?

I mainly pull inspiration from my life. I started writing music at like 6 or 7 – my parents called me an “anxious kid.” Songwriting quickly became a way for me to express my feelings and communicate them to others. As I got older, the purpose of songwriting stayed the same (a way to process emotions). The songs just got a little bit better. I always say that even if I stop pursuing music professionally, I’ll still write music. If I didn’t, I would lose my mind.

Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?

Lately, I’ve been playing at Collective Arts a lot, and it’s been a ton of fun. I’ll be back on May 11th, and then we gear up for a very fun run in the summer, but you can get more regular updates on Instagram @victoria_staff. Oh! And without giving anything away, you might want to leave a space in your calendar for July 22nd. 

What’s your goal for 2023?

I want to be able to do a push-up. I’ve never been able to because I’ve got spaghetti arms. But also, I want to release merch. I think even if just a couple of people bought it, it would be a fun new adventure. 

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